The longer I do this job, the more I worry I’m pushing crucial information out of my brain to make way for things like the history of various sausages or how yeast fermentation works. Beloved childhood friend’s birthday? Gone. Algebra? A sixth-grader’s homework would destroy me.
That said, studying food can be an academic pursuit. One thing I’ve learned repeatedly with regards to American cuisine is just how many now-ubiquitous dishes were pioneered by Black people, from barbecue to fried chicken. For this Juneteenth edition of INdulge, we’re highlighting a cornerstone of Afro-Caribbean cuisine with:
The next dish you should try in Indy
In the broad buffet of slow-cooked meats that I’ve enjoyed for occupational purposes, very few have rivaled the absurd tenderness of the oxtails at Yaso Jamaican Grill in Fountain Square.
A glossy heap of beautifully browned and braised beef stars in chef-owner Jermaine Dennis’ oxtails, which are cooked with butter beans (the whitish variety of lima beans) and served alongside the classic Caribbean accompaniment of sweet plantains, steamed cabbage and well-seasoned rice and peas (or, as they’re known in the States, kidney beans).
Each “oxtail” is in fact a single vertebra of a cow’s tail sheathed in the butter-like meat that is braised for hours. A lengthy cooking time is necessary because oxtail is full of collagen, the protein in connective tissue that in large quantities makes certain cuts of beef borderline inedible. That is, until the meat is cooked long enough to practically become a new state of matter, at which point it is maybe the single greatest food in existence.
The accompanying rice is perfect for soaking up the collagen-rich stewing liquid that bathes the oxtails in a slightly sweet and wildly savory flavor. Every other ingredient in the dish helps balance out the oxtail’s unmitigated meatiness, from the hearty butter beans to the bright, peppery cabbage and sticky-sweet plantains that would fit just as well atop a bowl of ice cream.
“J.D.’s famous oxtails” clock in at $28.95, which is a lot of money but likely wouldn’t seem too crazy if the mass of semi-melting beef were garnished with tweezed microgreens and served on a ceramic plate instead of inside a plastic clamshell box. Still, you wouldn’t be alone in thinking that’s a steep price, as the eye-bulging cost of oxtails has been a significant source of discussion over the last decade or so.
Historians widely agree that several soul food staples like oxtails, pig’s feet and chitterlings were pioneered by enslaved West Africans in the Caribbean and the United States who made ends meet with the cuts of meat cast aside by white slaveholders. Nowadays, these same off-cuts fetch $10 per pound or more at your local butcher shop.
Some of this has to do with simple supply and demand. For all the beef it has to offer, any given cow only has one tail — with some rare and, I imagine, very striking exceptions — and even the more ambitious carnivores typically aren’t stocking up on tripe or liver for their next cookout.
But there’s another school of thought that holds that offal’s newfound status as a gourmet ingredient is driving up costs. If you’ve visited an upscale restaurant recently, you’ve probably seen pâté de foie gras or maybe a beef cheek ragu on the menu. Just last fall I ate braised oxtail with hominy dumplings at Magdalena about a half-mile from Yaso in Fountain Square. It was unreal. It also cost, if I recall correctly, roughly a million dollars.
Notably, it’s not like oxtails were exclusively seen as a struggle meal before the advent of the Instagram-friendly New American restaurant. Multiple newspaper accounts in the early 1800s mention oxtail soup being served in English hotels, and famed French chef Auguste Escoffier wrote at length about the bovine delicacy. The Jan. 25, 1901, Sacramento Bee went so far as to claim, “Almost all meat eaters concede that for delicacy and flavor nothing in the beef line excels the morsels of meat that lie around the bones of the tail of the ox” — while, importantly, noting they could be bought for “prices within reach of all.”
Regardless of the precise reason, oxtail has become historically expensive. For all the positives that come with more people embracing the cuisines of others’ cultures, there are typically associated costs along the way.
Such is the tradeoff that comes with living in a city where you can eat all sorts of foods that historically were confined to a single community. So long as Jermaine Dennis and his wife and co-owner Ja’Net have such a standout dish on the menu at Yaso, I fear I will be at considerable risk of contributing to the demand side of the oxtail equation.
What: J.D.’s famous oxtails, $28.95
Where: Yaso Jamaican Grill, 1501 Prospect St., (317) 744-0011, yasogrill.com
In case that’s not your thing: Yaso’s menu highlights Jamaica’s wide influence of flavors, from native Taíno to Spanish and Indian. That includes jerk chicken and pork ($14 to $18), peppery curried goat ($17.95) and flaky patties stuffed with beef, chicken or steamed veggies ($5.50 each), plus plenty of seafood dishes including Jamaica’s national dish of ackee and saltfish ($20.95).
Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Instagram @BradleyHohulin and stay up to date with Indy dining news by signing up for the Indylicious newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: INdulge: This Juneteenth, try oxtails at popular Fountain Square spot
Reporting by Bradley Hohulin, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Bradley Hohulin, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
